Remembering Roots to the Shamanic: Dance Archetypes for Healing Self and
Tribe
Dicki Johnson Macy, Boston Children’s Foundation
Robert D. Macy, Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Foundation
ABSTRACT: This workshop will illustrate through film, didactic, and
experiential presentation, a successful expressive arts community intervention,
whose efficacy has been evaluated with cluster controlled trials, internationally.
Referring to ritual dances; it incorporates the vital building blocks for the
simultaneous healing of individual and community following traumatic exposure to
extreme stressors.
DESCRIPTION: Contemporary humankind has forsaken the sensory mode
of perception, which celebrates the oneness of all life forms; environmental
violence, including war, has transformed our perception to the mythic mode: “us
against them”. (LeShan). We have forgotten ancestral rituals for community
celebration and healing; in all cultures there existed the consciousness
transforming practices of dance and song circles. Considering the shamanic as a
healing archetype, we understand the necessity for healing the self and maintaining
a connection between the sacred (spiritual) and the profane (earth), in healing the
community. It is this healing archetype and the transformed dynamic perception
from mythic to sensory, that are foundations for the internationally evaluated
expressive arts community intervention, CBI®.
Over the last eight years the CBI service continuum has been
successfully implemented and evaluated in thirteen countries under extraordinarily
difficult circumstances. These circumstances include earthquakes, tsunami,
typhoons, as well as the aftermath of armed conflict and terrorist attacks, such as
9/11/01. In August of 2008 a cluster randomized trial of CBI was published in
JAMA indicating strong effect in several domains. Most importantly, CBI appears
to accomplish similar benefits offered by CBT and TF-CBT and the CBI effects of
reductions in depression and PTSD, with increases in hope and pro-social behavior
hold longer that CBT effects. It is the first expressive therapy based psychosocial
intervention for large scale trauma to be published in the literature. (See: W. Tol,
et al: J.T.V.M. (2008). School-based mental health intervention for political
violence-affected children in Indonesia: A cluster randomized trial. JAMA, 300,
655-662.)
We developed the Classroom-Based Intervention program to provide a
psychoeducational curriculum that can address the most critical needs of children
and youth exposed to threat and terror. We are currently conducting this work in
the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Our group consists of
clinicians with training in the arts and/or behavioral conditioning, and with
specialized training backgrounds in youth trauma who partner with local teachers,
counselors and parents to conduct this intensive intervention aimed at stress
inoculation against prospective threats as well as at stemming the traumatic effects
of a threatening incident, supporting healing, and developing skills and techniques
for recovering positive development trajectories. (Macy, R., Macy, D., Brighton, P.)
The CBI’s trauma specific treatment involves a sequence of interventions to
help children stabilize and return to the level of functioning they had before the
traumatic event. The structure of this intervention program is based upon proven
models for decreasing arousal, hyper-vigilance, fear, and numbing in traumatized
children. The design of the CBI program especially targets the children’s needs for
safety, trust, and stabilization, the first phase of trauma treatment (Macy, R.,
Macy, D., Brighton, P.).
For safety building, this phase oriented and structured intervention begins
with an integrated movement and sound ritual circle. Rhythm, preverbal and
primitive, eliminates boundaries, encouraging affiliation, and is the foundation for
these circles. Each child expresses his trauma narrative through art and drama
based activities; Collaborative movement challenge activities which facilitating
resource identification and installation, promote collective esteem, reincorporation
and the integration of soma and psyche follow. Finally, a circle ritual provides a
soothing and empowering ending for each session.
A developmental discussion of the archetypal aspect of the CBI’s content
and structure as well and its foundation in the shamanic practice of healing follows.
An archetype is an original model upon which other similar things are
patterned. We have found that the integrated sound and movement rituals which
frame the CBI intervention have been culturally familiar in Asia, Africa, and the
Middle East; Our “Gesture Dance” which is a rhythmic circling of the arms from
the heart center (self) to the sky, the earth and the community, has been likened to
the Turkish Dervish, to Hindi and Buddhist healing rituals, and other indigenous
community practices. (Johnson).
Unity was mankind’s original dynamic; In the beginning there was the unity
of Nature where in all creatures co existed harmoniously: men and women, animal
and vegetation, tribes. Based upon this unity, templates for survival, interaction,
communication , and healing evolved .The shaman developed ,in many cultures ,as
a healer devoted to maintaining a healthy community. Self healing was his
precursor to collective healing. The shaman assists the individual, through the
practice of ritual, in maintaining a connection to the sacred, or spiritual, and to the
profane, that which is of the earth, or man created. This shamanic practice may be
perceived as archetypal as its ancient and continued relevancy can be found in
most indigenous cultures. One of the most powerful aspects of the CBI training and
intervention is the simultaneous training and healing of local caregivers. The
training consists of five intensive days in which teachers, parents, and clinicians
immerse themselves in their own debriefing, focusing upon their own trauma,
surrendering to the power of group healing, and embodying the intervention which
they will later conduct for the children of their community. This is the shamanic
way.
Lawrence Le Shan, in his article, “Why We Love War” explores two
fundamental human drives: 1) To be singular and 2) to be part of a tribe. In
comparing two modes of perception, he considers the question, “How is it possible
to satisfy both drives, simultaneously and without contradiction?”. The mythic
mode of perception, which we assume as we war, perceives “us against them…good
and evil, with no innocent bystanders”. (Le Shan). We default as a contemporary
world, to viewing each other through this mythic lens. The “sensory mode”
perceives “us and them” as one. It is through this lens that ancient community
healing was conducted. In circles of sound and movement, in meditative and
spiritual development practices, there is a sense of oneness ; the individual and
group identities are simultaneously exalted and satisfied. Sensory in foundation, the
CBI is based upon reclaiming and experiencing the vital rhythm that balances
affiliation and solitude. The healing process begins as we recognize the need for
both:1) contemplation, focusing upon the individual’s internal landscape and 2)
outward expression, as the individual merges with the environment.
The time and nature symbolic structure of CBI, begins and ends with a
ritual circle: The “nest” circle enclosure, an ancient animal notion deeply encoded
within us, signifying safety. (Bachelard). The circles, ritualized as children practice
simple, repetitive, and harmoniously integrated sounds and movements, symbolize
“home”, and are practiced and shared by the group. We transform something
monotonous into something rhythmic and capable of channeling the Unity, when
we practice ritual.
The narrative component of the CBI structure represents the “journey”
which is taken by each individual exploring his story. It is the memory of, and
anticipation for, safety and home , that empowers the individual to embark on this
solo journey. Symbolizing the courage which is made possible by the presence of
belief and hope, CBI is symbolic of time past, present, and future.
We attempted toward these goals for CBI: to create balance between the
individual and the tribe, to be consciousness transforming, and to encourage
renewal and incorporation. Across time, culture, and religion, we found the
repetition of the following community building and healing elements:
circumambulation; movement chants with patterns of four beats and four
repetitions; the physical and symbolic heart as the source of emotional expression;
dynamic focal shifting of emphasis between the individual and the collective, and
consistent gestures which were symbolic of aspiration, nurturance, and nourishing..
These archetypal elements can be found, among others, in the welcoming dance of
Kuan Yin, the Boddhisatva of Compassion, and in the etudes of Isadora Duncan, a
choreographer who was dedicated to dance as ritual for spiritual growth. Isadora
made dances which reflected emotion as it related to visceral action and outward
movement expression.
Incorporating toning, a chanting technique which utilizes vowel sounds and
octaves and produces healing Alpha waves, proved to be integrative: The
scrambled pieces of trauma narrative moved toward a sequential chronology as
CBI’s integrated sound and movement sequences repositioned the neurological
puzzle. Singing allows the individual to interact with the environment while it
simultaneously stimulates the singer’s brain and sensory systems. Minimizing the
perception of isolation which accompanies a traumatic event, singing increases the
sense of affiliation.
The CBI intervention trains local caregivers to heal their communities in a
manner similar to the ancient shamanic method. Having self healed, the shaman is
empowered to care for the community. CBI methodology supports simultaneously,
the human drive to be unique and whole, and to be component, or part of the tribe.
CBI refers to the ancient community healing rituals which incorporate
contemplation and expression, sound and movement, action and rest. This
international program is one of the first contemporary expressive arts based
intervention to have been successfully implemented. In 2010, Taiwanese Dance
therapists, trained in CBI methodology were first responders for children left
homeless by devastating typhoons and Haitian psychologists soothed themselves
and their children with CBI safety building rituals.
References
Bachelard, Gaston (1958). The Poetics of Space. Boston, MA.: Beacon Press.
Johnson, Dicki (2007). Remembering the Collective Body: A Dynamic Understanding
of Attunement and Healing. The Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism &
Practice.(www.lesley.edu/journals/JPPP/12/PDF/Jppp12--Johnson.pdf). Issue 12.
Lesley University, Cambridge, MA.
LeShan, Lawrence (2003).Why We Love War--And What We Can Do To Prevent It
Anyway. Utne ,52-58.
Macy,Robert D., Macy, Dicki Johnson, Brighton, Pamela, (2003).Healing in familiar
Settings: Support for Children and Youth in the Classroom and Community.
Youth Facing Threat and Terror: Supporting Preparedness and Resilience; New
Directions In Youth Development, 98, 51-79.Jossey-Bass.
Macy, Robert D. (2004). Community-Based, Acute Posttraumatic Stress
Management: A
Description and Evaluation of a Psychosocial-Intervention
Continuum. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, Issue # 12.4, Taylor & Francis.
Tol, W.A., Komproe, I.H., Susanty, D., Jordans, M.J.D. Macy, R.D., & De Jong,
J.T.V.M. (2008). School-based mental health intervention for political violenceaffected children in Indonesia: A cluster randomized trial. JAMA, 300, 655-662.